TOPIC: The legal age of adulthood should be changed to 21
Students are to write persuasive speech on a current, substantive topic related to an issue of state, regional, national or international importance. The speech should contain main points designed to persuade the audience to accept your thesis.You must use a variety of supporting material from a variety of sources.Appropriate (APA format) citation is required in the outline and in the bibliography. A visual aid is required for this speech.
The Legal Age of Adulthood should be changed to 21
Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever wondered why the age of the majority is 18? Today presents us with the opportunity to reflect on the legal ramification of understanding the age of the majority. Statistics from different government agencies show that other societies have different thresholds for the legal age of adulthood. Although existing research indicates that the predominant age of adulthood is 18 years, Cesidian law provides the benchmark for young people to embrace rights to make decisions, pay taxes and enter into legal consent. Therefore, the law should help society to conceptualize the threshold of adulthood. The legal age for the majority should be twenty-one because it is the rightful age that a person assumes express control over their decisions, actions, responsibilities, and person.
Young people are still vulnerable at the age of eighteen years. The legal age presents concerns around when a person should use the law to make critical decisions that would impact their lives. In essence, the legal age that a person should decide on marrying, consenting to contract, testifying in court, and becoming capable of crime should be twenty-one (White 2019). Today, contemporary life informs the need to have a system that revolves around informed consent. The vulnerability at the age of eighteen is high, making the people vulnerable to different situations. For this reason, there is a need to increase the legal age to twenty-one.
Twenty-one is a practical age for adulthood. Most people mature differently. However, society must put in place systems and structures to protect the differential levels of maturity. Allowing young people to make decisions when they are still eighteen is a precipice for exposing them to abuse and manipulation. According to Tallini (2008), the legal age of adulthood manifests as the age where the law mandates a person to drink, make choices on marriage, acquire a commercial driving license, and make other life-changing decisions. At twenty-one, a person had attained adequate life experiences, maturity, and resources to exercise the rights and privileges of an adult. At the age of twenty-one, a person could have achieved significant exposures through education and attained emotional maturity to handle the legal status of being an adult.
The age of adulthood needs to increase to twenty-one, given the changing social, economic, and political landscape. In the past, Congress passed the age of adulthood at eighteen because the life expectancy was high. Today, res observation shows that most children are not mature at the age of eighteen. Also, the unemployment among the youth is increased, making the argument for raising the legal age to 21 more credible. According to White (2019), Americans claim legal independence from their guardians, parents, or caregivers at eighteen. However, the actions and decisions they make reflect catastrophic tendencies that need a review on raising the age of adulthood. Raising the age will address several socio-economic problems, such as homelessness among people in their early twenties.
The foregoing discussion has revealed the need to raise the legal age of adulthood to twenty-one. Several observations point to the significance of raising the age of adulthood from eighteen because of the vulnerability and maturity levels. Today, it is evident that most people are not yet mature at the age of eighteen. Therefore, the changing sociopolitical and economic landscape require that before a person acquires the legal age of maturity, they must manifest a certain level of maturity. For this reason, they will avoid falling into the pitfall of making disastrous decisions.
References
Tallini, H. M. R. D. C. Why the Age of Majority should be lowered.
White, N (2019). Why we’re letting Americans vote, marry, and drink far too young. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/05/29/why-were-letting-americans-vote-marry-drink-far-too-young/